


What Legends Forgot

by appleyogurt



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Bonding, Drama & Romance, F/M, Fantasy Violence, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Prequel, Some politics, Unrequited Crush, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:55:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26891041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appleyogurt/pseuds/appleyogurt
Summary: Ten thousand years before the calamity struck Hyrule, before written legend, there was the tale of two boys caught between fate and the powerful wills of the kingdoms they resided in.Prequel to Breath of the Wild, taking place ten thousand years before the calamity telling the story of the figures depicted in the tapestry that tells the creation of the divine beasts and the original champions.This fic was originally published under the same name but was deleted because I wanted to take it in a different direction! Some scenes may be similar to the original but a lot has changed. Updates every other Wednesday unless otherwise noted.
Relationships: Ganondorf/Link (Legend of Zelda), Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Kudos: 8





	1. Desert Race

_ “Almost there, almost there” _

_ How many other desperate travelers have repeated this to themselves, one down trodden woman thought to herself. The woman used her free hand to push a brunette lock out of her face, perhaps the only strand left unmatted on her head. Her right hand held a small bundle that began to cry weakly from hunger and from the growing sunburn that began to develop on his front. She took a moment and readjusted her hold on the small babe and her heels sunk deeper into the white sand of the Gerudo Desert. How amazing or rather cruel it was that only hours earlier the sun burnt her skin and the soles of her feet were tortured with each step of the hot sand and now when the moon had overtaken the sun, the cold sand soothed her feet only to allow the cold to creep up from her toes to her fingertips to the tip of her nose minutes later. The heat felt suffocating but the cold gnawed at her to her bones. She held her baby closer to her chest in an attempt to keep him warm. How much pain must he feel not knowing why he must freeze, why he must starve, she thought, does the pain of obliviousness hurt more than the pain of knowing? _

_ An icy gust of wind kicked up sand causing her to cough from sand invading her mouth and her eyes. It blew away the footprints she left behind. She must have looked like an ant, leaving trails of tiny footsteps with the goal of getting cargo so precious to her destination to the gods watching.  _

_ She huffed. What gods could even matter to her right now. What gods would damn her to this endless walk, these bleeding wounds, a husband who would never see his son grow up and play and frolic and love and cry and gods why wouldn’t they let her see it either! She could still feel herself losing blood from her abdomen and growing weaker with each step and she knew her time in this world was short. She kept her gaze straight ahead and kept walking, ignoring how her stride was slowly turning into a limp.  _

_ Each hour she got slower, and slower until she collapsed onto the cold sand below. She panted trying to maintain her balance on her knee. Her world began to spin and after a few minutes of maintaining her balance, she stood up only to collapse on her back. Her child remained on her chest, mewing quietly without the strength to cry.  _

_ For the first time in weeks, she was forced to look at the sky, unable to move or stand up. My gods, she thought in awe. She had never seen so many stars in the sky, heavily peppered against the pitch black. They twinkled and danced in her eyes and she understood why this desert sky had been the focus of so many ballads and poems in her father’s library. How she yearned to be home, to come barreling down the steps of her father’s home and to hug her mother. Were they dancing with these stars? Were they watching over her as they did when she fell asleep in their arms on those warm summer nights? She began to cry quietly, clutching her baby close to her chest. She didn’t even have the strength to suffocate the babe and to put him out of his misery. He would have to starve, or freeze whichever came first. She didn’t want to think of wild animals or lizalfos finding them. Right now, she was gazing upon the heavens with her son who breathed faintly. She could feel the wetness of her dress clinging to her skin. The blood had fully saturated her wretched dress but she didn’t care. Eventually she couldn’t feel the wet, the cold or even her son and she began to feel her eyes grow heavy. “Goodbye, Link” she whispered and with her last moments she wished upon one particular star, the brightest one, and stared at it’s majesty until her eyes could no longer reflect it.  _

...

**_Thirteen Years Later_ ** __

“Last one to the shrine is a featherless cucco!”

Ganondorf was showered in hot sand as Link sped past him on his shield and prized sand seal, Epona. After spitting out the salty sand and ruffling his long crimson hair to free it from some sand particles, Ganondorf grabbed the nearest sand seal from old Fesifa's shop and ripped the gold jeweled shield of his back and rode out from the sandstone gates into the vast desert.

"Good thing this cucco knows how to fly!" yelled Ganondorf as he whipped the rope attaching him to his sand seal, urging the animal to swim faster through the golden sand. 

The desert was especially bright today as Ganondorf had to use his hand to shield his eyes. It didn’t help that the sand reflected the already powerful Gerudo sun. He weaved through the cacti and the ladies harvesting the fresh volt fruit right outside Gerudo city’s walls. Link was still far ahead of him but he was catching up as Link’s was no longer a tiny speck in the distance. Link turned back and Ganondorf was close enough to see the glisten of his sky blue eyes. Seeing their proximity that was a little too close for Link’s liking, he turned back and steered Epona to the left towards an unsuspecting Lizalfos. Ganondorf was then witness to perhaps the most incredible feat done in sand surfing. When Link was close enough to the lizalfos he jumped up, his feet still attached to his shield, and bounced right off the lizalfo, giving him a small speed boost but more importantly making the lizard creature jolt up and see Ganondorf and began furiously heading right for him. With a yelp, Ganondorf unsheathed his scimitar and cut the lizard’s head right off. He felt his arm nearly rip off going through the lizalfo’s scaly neck while his other arm struggled to maintain its grip on his sand seal’s harness. “Damn you, Link!”, he shouted and he could hear what must have been roaring laughter from the blonde haired boy ahead. But his laughter wouldn’t last as Ganondorf quickly started catching up to him, weaving through cacti and dried up bushes flawlessly and soon they were neck and neck. The grey shrine currently under construction was right in the horizon, getting closer and closer with each second. 

“It seems my trap couldn’t stop you huh?!” Link shouted over the loud sounds of the rushing sand displacement behind them and their sand seals. 

“You know I never fall for your tricks, my friend!” Ganondorf shouted back with a grin. 

Link threw his head back to laugh once more when  _ SMACK! _ The sand seals diverged left amd had avoided the shrine wall but the force of the momentum caused the boys to come crashing forward and colliding right into the shrine. Ganondorf fell back as did Link. Thankfully the sand cushioned his fall. It was one less pain to deal with as the pain from Ganondorf’s forehead roared. After a few minutes of wallowing in his pain, he was helped up by Link who was rubbing his own forehead. Ganondorf’s world was still spinning but slowly everything fell back into place and he could make out Link’s features. His nose was scrunched up as he was still processing his pain and his hair was mostly sticking out of his ruby hair band, rendering it rather useless. His pants were covered in sand as was Ganondorf’s, covering their patterned trousers. Luckily they were both shirtless so there was less sand to to wash off later at the basin. 

Ganondorf’s senses were finally back into place and he could safely rule out major brain damage until Link began to yell, “Ah, you stupid oaf! You distracted me and made me crash right into the shrine!”

“Me!?” Ganondorf yelled back, “Why, if it wasn’t for your insistence we would still be home! We can’t all take off at any moment your  _ highness _ ,” he said playfully. Link’s nose shriveled up once and as he opened his mouth to retort, there was the  _ whoosh _ of a spear blade cutting the space between them and separating them only to be followed by a booming voice,

“Under the order of the Hyrulian crown, state your business here immediately!”


	2. Heed My Word

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics mean dialogue is being spoken in Gerudo or is internal. Context should make it clear which is which but please let me know if there is confusion! Link to artwork I made for this at end notes :)

“Under the order of the Hyrulian crown, state your business here immediately!”

Ganondorf looked up at the wielder of the spear in dismay. The spear wielder looked similar to the construction crew of the newly erected shrine. She was one of the Sheikah judging from her having their trademark red markings and sharp red eyes. Her white hair was braided perfectly center and Ganondorf’s eye followed the tattooed Sheikah eye emblem starting on her forehead to the red tear trailing down her nose bridge. The image of a needle going in and out of her skin flashed through his head. _What kind of person sits through that pain_ , he wondered. Her presence was made certainly more intimidating with her height. She stood a good two heads taller than him, only slightly shorter in height to the average Gerudo woman. However her gaze was a stone set as the statues outside the Gerudo palace; secure in her standing. 

Link interrupted his thoughts and spoke to the woman, “ _Sav’aaq_ sister. I’m Link of the Gerudo. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Link spoke in his best Hyrulian, stumbling through the pronunciation of the word “pleasure.” _He’s always so confident speaking to others, even in another language_ , Ganondorf thought to himself. The spear wielder’s arms relaxed as she lowered the spear and cleared her throat. 

“Impa,” she said matter of factly in Hyrulian, “I'm supervising the final construction of this shrine here. You still haven't stated what your business is here, Link and…" she trailed off whilst questioningly looking at Ganondorf.

In his best Hyrulian with some Gerudo peppered in he responded, “ _Sav’aaq,_ Ganondorf of the Gerudo. And my friend’s _wildberry sized brain-”_ Link interjected with a small shove, “-decided to race here. We apologize for crashing into your shrine. We were rash and _idiotic_.”

The council elders had agreed to allow the Sheikah to build on Gerudo land months prior but refused to tell Ganondorf or even Link anything. In fact, the population of Gerudo Town was told only the night prior to their arrival and were awoken the next morning to great wooden carts filled with stones, tools and Sheikah in tow. Ganondorf knew the council were busy with something, stowed away in conference often, but he thought the secrecy was due to his and Link’s age. They had only just turned thirteen after all.

“Well, I suppose no harm was done but come again unannounced and I can’t promise my comrades will ask questions before acting,” Impa stated as she lowered herself against the shrine and sat cross legged. The Gerudo’s Valley’s heat was unrelenting and no doubt the sheikah woman was beginning to crave a fan and the cool mountain breeze of Kakariko.

Impa continued, “The shrine here will be finished in its entirety soon. There needs to be finishing touches made in the interior and blessed.”

Ganondorf couldn’t really make out how such a small shrine could need more than a few days to complete its interior. Its exterior was unlike any Gerudo shrine or house of worship he had ever seen. Grey and round ( _almost like a boot_ , Ganondorf would realize later), it had deep carvings in abstract flowing swirls and circles encompassing the base. The stone it was made out of was reflective and hurt Ganondorf’s eyes to look at directly at this time of day and so he looked further ahead, past the construction workers, only to see a figure in the distance disfigured by heat waves. A woman who was most likely a monk sat cross legged with her neck craned down. Her face covering flapped in the wind and something felt uneasy deep in his stomach. Ganondorf redirected his attention back to Impa upon hearing her sigh. 

“Why are you building shrines out here in the valley anyway? No Sheikah ever came this far out in the desert without a death wish,” Link asked Impa. She replied, “well, haven’t your elders explained already?”

“No, normally they would tell us anything happening in council but they’re deciding to keep it on a ‘need to know basis’,” he finished while making air quotations.

“Well, then you don’t need to know. Listen, kid, I can’t disrespect your elders because we already had trouble allowing us to build here. We can’t have anything, I repeat, anything impede our sacred mission.”

“Sacred mission?,” Ganondorf asked. Impa looked up at him saying, “Again kid, I can’t tell you if your elders decided against it,” Impa said as she began to fan herself with her hands albeit fruitlessly, “But I’ll be sure to visit Gerudo Town tonight anyway. We’re supposed to allow the elders and king to see the blessing ceremony as a sign of gratitude for allowing us to build on these sacred grounds.”

Link’s ears perked up, “the future king you say?”

“Yes him,” Impa replied. 

Link turned to Ganondorf, “Why would the elders keep this from me then?”

Impa raised an eyebrow at this and said, “I thought the great Gerudo king was meant to be the first male born. Aren’t you him, boy?” Impa raised a finger to gesture at Ganondorf lazily, as if to express some disappointment in his figure. Ganondorf thought she was a bit rude for this but he knew what she meant. Gerudo males were fabled and written in legend throughout Hyrule. They were only supposed to be born every 100 years after all. So Ganondorf was able to understand Impa’s initial disappointment. He wasn’t exactly “once a century” material in his own eyes. Ganondorf was lanky for his height with some lean muscle at least. Link, on the other hand, had much more muscle, his abdomen beginning to develop abs that made their Gerudo sisters gossip in giddy whispers. 

Link swinged his foot back and forth gently in sulky contemplation and kicked up a small amount of sand doing so. Ganondorf gently placed his foot in front of Link’s stopping his foot’s momentum and seemingly springing forth an idea instead as Link’s eyes lit up.

“Well, Impa of the Sheikah might we invite you and your companions to a feast. An invitation from the king himself!” Link said rather enthusiastically.

“Oh? And where might this king be or does he usually send his lackey in his stead?” she retorted. 

Ganondorf was paying attention to the conversation until he heard ghostly whispering in his right ear. Then all of a sudden, a ringing exploded in his ear and he grimaced in pain looking up away from the two and towards the figure in the distant sands he had seen earlier. The ringing seemed to subside just a bit when he looked at the obscured figure, unsure if her distortion was from his growing nausea or the heat refracting his vision.

“No..” Link pouted for a second before huffing, “actually I-”

“ _Wh-who is, I me-_ I mean um who is that there, in the distance sitting in the sand.” Ganondorf interrupted suddenly. 

“Our monk…” Impa said with a confused look, “She is deep in meditation though and she doesn’t like to be interrupted often. She won’t move from her spot now that we’re here you see...she’s quite devoted-”

“Yes, yes devoted…” he trailed off, beginning to walk towards the monk. He could hear his footsteps unsettle the sand beneath him but he couldn’t really feel them. He walked almost on air, entranced by the monk’s energy and feeling the satisfying reward of his newfound tinnitus easing up as he got closer.

The sun was beginning to set and the sky was a deep orange as he finally reached the monk. He was now quite far from the Sheikah builders and Link. He looked down to see the monk was sitting cross legged with short white pants. As Ganondorf observed her he noticed she had no top and her long white hair covered her breasts. Her face was completely covered by a white cloth, obstructing his view of her face completely. By now the ringing was gone allowing him to hear the golden bangles on her wrist chime against each other on her hands positioned in prayer. Her large necklace with golden triangular shaped charms clinked every so often against the bangles. Her legs crossed over each other and did not fail in their stillness. Ganondorf twiddled his thumbs and shifted from foot to foot. While his ringing went away, his growing nausea did not. In fact, now it felt anchored in his gut with the particular source of his nausea right in front of him, feeding the growing ache and displeasure inside.

“Hello… I wanted to say hello well, I already said that didn’t I? _I’m sorry_ my Hyrulian is quite poor but Impa- the Sheikah fighter but you probably already know that…” Ganondorf blurted out without thinking but the Sheikah monk remained still and unbothered. 

He continued,“Anyways, she said that you would stay here I think and I wanted to invite you personally to the inn, it gets terribly cold at night here in the valley.” 

She continued to sit there unbothered, oblivious to his offer or perhaps truly uninterested like Impa said she would be. He stood there, waiting for a few minutes until the first night breeze braced against his legs. He sighed and began to walk back towards Link and Impa who were beginning to gather the other construction workers. 

“ _Ganondorf of legend of fable”_

Ganondorf immediately whipped right back around and a jolt of electricity ran up his spine to the top of his head. His breathing began to quicken out of his control. “ _That voice, how did you get into my head witch?”_ he said without breath to the monk while she sat still, her head tilted down with not a single hair displaced from her pose. 

_“Well that’s rather rude isn’t it?”_

Ganondorf looked down to see the monk looking up at him. Her face covering which had the signature red Sheikah eye embroidered onto it, it’s gaze pervaded throughout his entire body traveling from his eyes to his bottom of his gut before spreading through his veins like venom. 

_“Stop fretting, I don’t have time to explain the intricacies of Sheikah craft, I must tell you something. Now heed my word.”_

The only thing Ganondorf could do was nod.

_“A moon filled with blood will rise. Brothers of the skies will fall and only one will gain back Her grace. The moon will spill and blood will drown the fish, the birds, the mountains and all her little warriors. Be careful Gerudo king, be careful of whispers in pairs of two for it will be your downfall.”_

The monk’s head craned back down and she became stone once more. Ganondorf was trembling and moreover, confused. What did this mean? Two brothers and a moon full of blood? He couldn’t even comprehend why she would call him the king of the Gerudo. He turned around once more albeit apprehensively. 

_“Oh, and thank you for the offer Ganondorf but you have bigger things to worry about than me.”_

He nodded and began to walk back towards the group.

  
  


Eventually his legs would stop shaking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ART LINK : https://www.deviantart.com/appleyogurt/art/Chapter-two-artwork-858134307?ga_submit_new=10%3A1602730231  
> (the pic isn't of a particular scene just how i imagine the boys to look like)  
> Thanks for reading! Early update technically so next update will be two Wednesdays from now! Giving myself an extra week helps keep the updates consistent and less stress for myself bc of zoom university and work haha.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! All comments and crit welcomed!


End file.
